The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

Loading ...

Loading ...

This story appears in the {{article.article.magazine.pretty_date}} issue of {{article.article.magazine.pubName}}. Subscribe

While many, including myself, are waiting for Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook to unveil the much anticipated and widely expected iPad Mini as well as other new products later today, the noose continues to tighten for Blackberry maker Research in Motion (RIMM). Late yesterday it was announced that over 17,600 users in U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency are being moved from BlackBerry devices to Apple's iPhone.

Image via CrunchBase

While not a tremendous volume blow for Research in Motion, ICE’s move to Apple after 8 years of relying on RIM’s technology reignites questions of confidence and the competitive advantage to be had with the Blackberry and in Research in Motion.

ICE is not the first government agency to move away from RIM’s Blackberry products. Back in February, it was announced that the General Services Administration (GSA), the US government’s main procurement agency, announced its decision to provide iPhones and Android devices to its employees. While the GSA offered other devices, ICE awarded a contract for iPhone smartphones and services in late September.

ICE’s decision to adopt the iPhone comes after evaluating a number of smartphone platforms, including Android, Windows, Symbian, Linux and Samsung’s Bada offering. Android was cast out because the operating systems is open-source and used across a number of manufacturers that ICE feared could lead to modifications to accommodate new features. By comparison, Apple and RIM offer direct control over the devices that implement their operating systems and have measures to detect and disable attempts to modify the operating system.

This is but the latest blow to Research in Motion, which has been struggling with not only the onslaught of Android powered smartphones from a growing number of vendors as well as Apple’s share gains in the smartphone market, but also the move to “bring your own device” (BYOD) to work. ICE’s own evaluation found the Blackberry ranked far lower than Android and Apple devices on commercial viability. With Microsoft (MSFT) doubling down yet again on the smartphone market and Nokia (NOK) introducing lower priced Lumia smartphones to combat moves from Samsung, LG, HTC and others, the battle to the bottom is on.

While there are those that are waiting for the BB10 OS, the concern is whether or not it will be to much too late? While the BB10 may help spur a replacement cycle inside of the existing user base, the real question is whether or not it can get iPhone and Android users to switch. Given the stickiness associated with Apple's devices given the company's iTunes digital content platform and iCloud offering, I would not bet the farm on Research in Motion winning many iPhone users.

From my perch, the ICE announcement confirms what I have been saying for sometime now - the smartphone market is on a path of consolidation around 2-3 players and there will be a period of carnage as that happens. We’ve seen this before in a number of industries - PCs, autos, and countless consumer electronics - and we are on the cusp of this happening in the tablet market. While the device manufactures slug it out, I continue to favor companies like Skyworks (SWKS), Broadcom (BRCM) and Qualcomm (QCOM) as a way to invest in the secular shift toward connected mobile devices. Not only are those companies seeing their end markets grow, but Skyworks and Broadcom in particular are capturing greater dollar content per device.